If you’ve read my other post, you’ll already know that NCIS’ OG couple Tony and Ziva are getting their own spinoff show. But yesterday, the official title was revealed: “NCIS: Tony & Ziva“. And people have a lot of thoughts about it. So here’s my two cents.
I’ll preface this by saying that I haven’t looked at any other social media platforms other than Twitter (yes, I still call it that!), so I cannot comment on the reactions of it there, but I can say that the reaction on Twitter was divided, at best. A lot of people were saying it’s too basic, and asking why they couldn’t have come up with something better? Out of all the titles in the world they could have chosen, why did they choose that one? Others loved it.
I’ll admit that it wasn’t what I was expecting when I heard it. I genuinely thought that it was going to be something different – some sort of title that would take a little guess work for outsiders to understand, but then when the penny dropped, it would be obviously clear as to why they had chosen it, especially for Tiva fans. (My thoughts were something like “NCIS: Jet Lag”… because if you know, you know.)
But the more I sat with this title yesterday, the more I loved it. Because it isn’t just a title.
It’s their names, side by side. It’s the two of them as a couple. It’s not just the two of them as individuals at NCIS. It’s not just Tony anymore. It’s not just Ziva.
It’s Tony and Ziva.
The title is intimate. Personal. It solidifies the idea that they’re no longer entirety separate people; that you can’t have one of them without the other. They and their stories will be forever connected by the ampersand.
This show, for us, is twenty years in the making. From the moment Tony and Ziva met in 2005, Tiva fans have been yearning for them to be a couple. Their chemistry is unmatched. Every year there would be the question of: are these two characters ever going to kiss? Every season we’d ask: ‘is this the season where they finally get together?’ But they never did. At least, not until Ziva left, that is. And even then, though they did conceive a child during their fond farewell (which Tony later discovers during his own leaving arc), the two of them have never been a couple on screen.
It is two decades of longing. It is two decades of emotional turmoil for both of these characters. It’s us as fans watching their first interaction in “Kill Ari: Part 1.” It’s watching their teasing and their banter. It’s watching Ziva watch Tony with Jeanne in season 4. It’s the season six finale “Aliyah.” It’s the season seven premiere “Truth or Consequences.” It’s Ziva with Ray. It’s Tony with EJ. It’s “Under Covers,” “Boxed In,” “Cloak,” “Reunion,” “Jet Lag,” “A Desperate Man,” “Housekeeping,” “Canary,” “Shabbat Shalom,” “Shiva,” “Berlin,” “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” and “Past Present Future.” It’s all of the small moments that Tony and Ziva have shared – the looks, the words, the closeness without the two of them ever being together as a couple. It’s the sexual tension, and the heartache. It’s us as the audience watching these two people fall in love with one another, and wanting them to finally admit their feelings.
It’s easy to brush the title off as unoriginal; to feel like not a lot of thought has gone into it. But, when you consider their journey spanning two decades, and realise how much these characters have been through to get to where they are now, it’s actually rather poetic.
It represents them – together. And it carries with it twenty years of emotions.
Yes! That’s right – you heard me! Tony and Ziva are getting their own spinoff and I am practically vibrating with excitement! I know that if you’re reading this, the news has been out for a while – almost two months, but truthfully, it has taken me this long to process it; to gather my words into coherent sentences to explain exactly how I feel about this… and even then, I feel like the words that I write here cannot do justice to how overwhelmingly elated I am.
If you read my post back in January about my preliminary thoughts on NCIS: Origins, you’ll know that I have been a long time lover of the mothership for almost as long as it has been airing. For a large portion of my adolescence and teens, it was my favourite show, and I would sit down religiously every single week to witness my favourite crime-fighting, ass-kicking team in action. That was, until, the departure of Ziva David (Cote De Pablo), in season 11.
When Cote left NCIS, I was heartbroken. I had never been so deeply devastated by something before in my entire life, and I can only describe the depth of the despair and sadness I felt as something akin to grief. It’s hard when you build a sentimental and emotional attachment to a character, to have them suddenly ripped from your grasp, because it genuinely feels as though you’re saying goodbye to a friend or family member for the last time. You invite these characters into your homes for years, and the moment they are not there anymore, you certainly notice their absence. And this was the hardest television goodbye I had ever had to go through.
But, it wasn’t just Ziva David I was saying goodbye to. It also meant saying a very heavy farewell to the ‘ship’ called “Tiva” [Tony + Ziva]. If you’ve been a long-time fan of NCIS, then you’re probably very familiar with this duo and their magnetic energy, the sexual tension, longing looks from across the bullpen, jealousy, fights, and the two of them constantly teetering on the line of being just friends and something more. It’s a ship that I hopped on board with before I even knew that the term ‘shipping’ meant, and it’s one that I sailed, through hell and high water, for almost a decade. And the heartbreak of letting them go was equally as devastating.
As fans, all we ever wanted throughout the course of their run on the show together was for Tiva to be together, and by season 10 we were incredibly close to finally having our dreams come true. But, as anybody in the Tiva fandom will tell you: it felt like the writers hated us, and hated this ship. They couldn’t even consider the possibility of the two of them actually being together, and so just as they dangled the carrot, it was brutally ripped from our grasp. We were teased time and time again with these small moments of Tiva being in love but never truly admitting their feelings for one another… and just when we thought they would and the writers would finally allow them to cross that line, they did a complete 180.
[Note: The writers have claimed in the past that if Cote had stayed, Tiva would have happened eventually and that we ‘were not that far off from having it happen’, but truthfully, as a fandom, we found (and still find) this very hard to believe in. Our trauma and trust issues with these writers run deep.]
Then, of course, our dreams seemed entirely impossible. Because how can these two characters even get together when Ziva is no longer there? They gave us some heartbreakingly beautiful moments in “Past, Present, and Future,” and yet, after having waited eight years for this to happen, it just didn’t feel like enough. There was no true love confession. There was simply a kiss in the poorest lighting, to commemorate this moment.
Skip forward two years later, to the end of season 13. Michael Weatherly is leaving the show. The ‘Tony’ of Tiva was going for good… but of course, being Tiva fans, we held onto the small inch of hope that our dreams could still come true. And in some ways, they did. Tony and Ziva ended up with a daughter, Tali – confirmation that what we had always wanted to happen, happened! But, remember when I said that the writers hated us and hated the ship? Of course they had to add in a big screw you, by killing the character of Ziva (off-screen), to make the event of a reunion between Tony and Ziva virtually impossible. (But even impossible things come true sometimes…)
But still, though it seemed like the ship had sunk to the very bottom of the ocean, we held out the tiny wavering thread of possibility that someday, somehow, it might still happen. We dived deep into the plot holes, pulling apart everything that could possibly signal that they hadn’t completely betrayed us and the character. ‘Ziva loves Paris.’ (Emphasis on the present tense). No body, no crime. And most of all: Ziva would not have been that reckless. (If you’re a Ziva or Tiva fan, you know…)
And while this was somewhat remedied during Ziva’s return arc in season 17 – as it turns out she was in fact alive and in hiding, and not dead like most people had previously believed (everyone except us Tiva fans!), and ended with her reuniting off screen with Tony and Tali in Paris, we just wish there had been so much more. Because knowing is one thing. But seeing it with your own eyes, is another.
This yet-to-be-titled show is all we, as Tiva fans, have ever wanted and more. It has been eleven years since we last saw them on screen together, and we have ached for this moment ever since. Even in January’s post, I mentioned how if I had things my way, Tiva would get a spinoff of their own! (I’m actually sitting here cackling with laughter, because little did I know what was going to be announced just over two months later… am I clairvoyant? Was it my Gibbs’ gut?)
To outsiders, this spinoff may seem unnecessary, or as though we are overly invested in it, but when two characters and their (at times, tragic), love story have been a part of you and shaped your life for nearly two decades, is there any other way to be? The purpose of this spinoff is not about the money. It’s not about being ‘relevant’ (but, for us Tiva fans, they always are…). It’s for the fans who have spent their lives loving and adoring this couple from the moment they appeared on screen, yearning for them to be together. (And the fact that it will be airing on Paramount+ rather than on prime time television also bodes extremely well for us, because of the greater possibilities they now have content-wise… spicy scenes and swearing? Is that on the horizon?!)
It doesn’t matter if others don’t understand how monumental of a moment this is for us. We know.
But, the thing that makes me vibrate with excitement even more than the idea of the spinoff, is the fact that it will be run by the captains of the ship – Michael Weatherly and Cote De Pablo. They are at the helm of the boat, steering Tiva’s journey out of the harbour. And, unlike the mothership writers, we have complete faith and trust in them and in the voyage upon which we are about to embark. They love the characters of Tony and Ziva as much as we do, and we have never been more certain that Tiva’s love story is in safe hands.
Ship: to take an interest in or hope for a romantic relationship between (fictional characters or famous people), whether or not the romance actually exists.
If you know me, you’ll know that I have been a long-time fan of NCIS. For years, it was the show that defined me. I had turned the television over to the show by accident one day circa 2007, and that was all it took. One episode and I was hooked – forever invested in these characters and stories, to the point they almost felt like friends. I would watch episodes religiously every week, and I felt so deeply for these characters that I even dabbled in writing fanfiction (but that’s for another post…)
To be honest, although at one point it was my favourite show, I haven’t truly watched it in years. When Cote De Pablo announced her departure for season 11 in 2013, I was utterly heartbroken. I had become so attached to Ziva David as a character that saying goodbye to her felt like saying goodbye to a friend. I couldn’t imagine not seeing her on screen every week alongside the other wonderful actors, and my favourite show no longer felt like my favourite show. There would be no more sexual tension between Tony and Ziva; no more of their longing looks across the bullpen. There awesome threesome – Tony, Ziva, and McGee would be non-existent. Everything changed, and I could no longer bring myself to watch it as avidly as I once did.
Of course, I did tune in for the odd episode such as the departure of Tony DiNozzo (played by Michael Weatherly), because although it was a bittersweet moment, my little Tiva shipping heart was happy that there closure, albeit not the closure I would have hoped for.
I watched the departure of Abigail Scuito, whose character I had once aspired to be, having become enamoured with the idea of forensic science (though, I decided against becoming one because I didn’t think I could handle the real-life responsibility of the job and everything it entailed… and it was also probably not as glamourous as the television made it out to be).
Then, in Season 17, Cote De Pablo returned for some very special Ziva-centric episodes which filled my heart with so much joy that I felt like I was going to burst. Seeing her return to the character and the role that I had grown so attached to… it honestly felt like a friend was returning home after almost a decade away. And again, though her episodes didn’t give us the closure we wish we had had (i.e. and on-screen reunion with Tony & Tali), they came much closer than her previous departure episodes did.
And more recently, at the end of season 18/beginning of season 19, Mark Harmon–the OG leader–decided that it was time to leave his role as Leroy Jethro Gibbs behind, having played the same character for almost two decades of his life. Admittedly, there was some speculation that the show would not survive without him, leaving only Timothy McGee (played by Sean Murray) as the last remaining character to appear in every single season since the show aired. But despite the worries, the show is still as successful as it once was, having gone through the routine of character changes more than a few times – from Jenny Shepherd to Leon Vance, from Caitlin Todd to Ziva David, from Abigail Scuito to Kasie Hines, and from Leroy Jethro Gibbs to Alden Parker.
Of course, having a show on air for two decades means that there have been a lot of storylines and background for every character, most notably Gibbs. Over the course of nineteen seasons, the show explores Gibbs’ past multiple times – from his various marriages to different redheads, to his immediate family including Shannon and his daughter Kelly, his encounter with the beloved medical examiner Ducky (David McCallum), his journey to becoming an NIS agent (later renamed to NCIS), and his relationship with his former mentor, Mike Franks (Muse Watson).
Last week, CBS’s announcement of Mark Harmon’s return to the role of Gibbs in a new show – NCIS: Origins – caught me by surprise. I know that there will be many fans out there for whom this is wonderful news, but the question begs: how much more of a story can they tell that they haven’t already told before? How will they be able to translate this into a story that is multiple episodes long, without being a cut-and-paste version of what we’ve seen in NCIS? Also, will there be continuity?
In addition, Mark Harmon’s son Sean will be returning to play the role of a young Gibbs. He has previously portrayed the character in several episodes of NCIS during flashbacks to Gibbs’ past, which is sure to be a treat for the hardcore NCIS fans and bodes well for the continuity aspect. Still, what about the other characters that we have seen in Gibbs’ past in the original series? Will the same actors/actresses be willing to reprise their roles to keep the continuity, or will they be casting new and unknown actors for the parts?
But the question I am perhaps the most interested in (aside from whether it will be good, which remains to be seen), is will viewers find it popular or are there some stories that should simply rest in peace? Having watched Gibbs’ departure storyline, it felt like a fitting farewell to him. It made sense. It gave the closure we all needed to say our goodbyes to this character that had graced our screens for so many years. After all, even Gibbs states in his rules:
Rule 11: When the job is done, walk away.
I’ll admit, I am intrigued to see the outcome of this new series, even if I may be on the fence about watching it. (Although I may do so, if only to review). To be honest, if I had it my way I would much rather see a spin-off show starring Michael Weatherly and Cote De Pablo as Tiva (Tony & Ziva), because even after all these years my heart still ships them as hard as it once did!
But then, I wonder: if the door is open for a Gibbs’ origin story, will there be space for others?
Photo: Digital Spy, CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
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